Funded by the Ansari family, the Ansari XPRIZE challenged teams from around the world to build a reliable, reusable, privately financed, manned spaceship capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the Earth's surface twice within two weeks.
The prize was awarded in 2004 and along with it, a brand new private space industry was launched.
Learn more about the competition

Human flight took a significant step forward today as the privately built SpaceShipOne flew into suborbital space for the second time in five days, securing the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE. With pilot Brian Binnie at the controls, SpaceShipOne rocketed to a winning height of 367,442 feet (112 kilom

On Sunday, June 20th, a day before the launch of SpaceShipOne from the Civilian Flight Test Center in Mojave, Calif., the onlookers began rolling into the parking lot—a convoy of cars and RVs, hundreds of them, rumbling towards what some called the space enthusiasts' Woodstock.